Question asking practice fosters curiosity in young children

Abstract

Children who are more curious learn more in school, but little is known about how to promote curiosity-driven behaviors. In a preregistered experiment, 103 children (54 boys, 49 girls, ages 5-7-years) were randomly assigned to a condition in which they were encouraged to ask questions, or to listen carefully, during eight one-on-one science lessons over two weeks. Children in the question-asking condition valued new science information significantly more than children in the listening condition (Wilcoxon r = .23). Children with less background knowledge benefited more from question-asking. These results suggest that practice with question-asking can boost some aspects of curiosity and learning.